Effects of Solid Matrix and Porosity of Porous Medium on Heat Transfer of Marangoni Boundary Layer Flow Saturated with Power-Law Nanofluids

The effect of the solid matrix and porosity of the porous medium are first introduced to the study of power-law nanofluids, and the Marangoni boundary layer flow with heat generation is investigated. Two cases of solid matrix of porous medium including glass balls and aluminum foam are considered. The governing partial differential equations are simplified by dimensionless variables and similarity transformations, and are solved numerically by using a shooting method with the fourth–fifth-order Runge–Kutta integration technique. It is indicated that the increase of the porosity leads to the enhancement of heat transfer in the surface of the Marangoni boundary layer flow.